Business Source Elite

This database provides articles and contextual information on business and finance. Academic journals, trace publications and popular magazines and newspapers are indexed. After a search is initially taken, a column opens up to the right, allowing the searcher to modify their query to different search terms, limit types of publications or narrow to a particular company or industry. I think this database would be most useful to students who are researching policy because it could be used to track trends that the ways that businesses are responding to them. (Tim)

Business and company resource center

The B&CRC is a business database which allows the user to search for information by both company and industry. An entry about a particular company in broken down into two section, a column of available articles and narrative data running down the left side of the screen, and a selection of tabs across the top offering the user to access different financial data and reports. Reference USA is usually my first stop for financial information, but if the user is looking for in depth information on a particular company, this can be a useful database as the availability to cross-reference reports with news stories could be valuable. (Tim)

Geek Speak

I was listening to a tech podcast this morning and the group was talking about new vs. old media models, specifically the "old" media of newspapers, magazines and radio vs. the "new" media of RSS feeds and social networking. The interesting thing about the conversation was the idea that "old" media was a one way street where information was given by the providers, accepted by the receivers, and there was very little meeting in the middle or feedback. One of the defining aspects of the "new" media, however, was that it empowered the users to add their own content - collaborating with the original content providers. I was wondering if we could use this idea for the library to engage our users in conversations and collaborations through social networking services like Facebook and Twitter and through our web site.